Just rewatched the game.
Overall the Welsh really muscled up in defence (as expected) which made it a far tighter contest. The thing that was good from an Aussie perspective was our game management- we were patient but not slow, skilful but not extravagant. We did the basics well and slowly chipped away at the Welsh line. It wasn't a performance for the ages but it was pretty good. In the end we built pressure in the final five minutes and it told. I thought we were deserving winners.
Barnes was outstanding and directed play brilliantly. He underplayed his hand which was exactly what the game required. His kicking game was once again very good.
I was also impressed with Sekope Kepu. Kept the scrum solid and made some big plays in the loose. One of his best games in gold.
Another who was good was (deep breath) Rob Horne. Made a couple of crucial defensive plays, and ran well all night.
Same with Rob Simmons. I wrote him off last week but he showed me up last night. Defence was noticeably better as was his work with ball in hand.
No-one really had a bad game once again. Vuna made one silly error but overall wasn't bad.
I think that was an important win. We needed to go back to back to prove that Brisbane was the norm and Newcastle was the blip, not vice-versa. In that sense I was very happy we got the job done.
.
I think it proved that we could control the direction of a game when it requires a tighter structure than we prefer to play at. Apart for a few aparitions we not the Welsh dictated much of the direction of the game in the face of a far sterner (and borderline offiside) Welsh defence. Did the Welsh actually manage to work the ball into our 22m at any time apart from the try against the run of play?
While the Welsh were far more put together and competitve this week, a one point loss for the Wallabies would have been a unfair result as far as I was concerned as we were still the better team.
As for the players. TPN and Kepu were great and outside of Barnes were probably close to our best. Got to love Kepu's athleticism for a Prop. Robinson was solid and did his job from my perspective. I don't necessarily want to see Props running lines and perorming deft touches. Rather they do the grunt work in close as that often proves more valuable and I thought he did that well enough. Not his best but still good. Can we settle the issue of our best front row (as a unit) now and say the Tahs combination is the clear leader. Simmons improved and I thought Sharpe played better this week as well. Pocock, well, I don't need to say much about his performance. It's pretty consistent. Great temprament as a Captain, works the refs over nicely. Palu seemed a little subdued. Not his usual self. Still stats don't lie and his involvements we still solid.
Genia was off from last week but I think that had a lot to do with the Welsh watching him like a hawk and not giving him the space to work. Well done to them on that account. Barnes, excellent. McCabe and Horne were both strong with a reversal of last weekend with Horne taking the points this time. Digby and ACC were again quality in their positions. Vuna. Worked a little harder, looks strong with ball in hand but boy, that yellow card was ugly. Can remember thinking to myself 'no,no,no,noooo!!' as he went into that contact.
